The United States: the Black Question
We all wanted to believe that Barack Obama's dazzling election in 2008 would accelerate history's forward trajectory in a good way for once. Barack Obama, would lead the United States into a post-racial era and serve as an example for all democracies. Six years later we see that we were wrong: the American president did not perform any of the expected miracles.
Last August in Missouri, a white police officer shot Michael Brown, a young African-American male. After courts found the officer not guilty, riots broke out in Ferguson and a number of large American cities. This anger demonstrates that 50 years after civil rights legislation race continues to deeply divide the United States. Are events in Ferguson emblematic of a larger problem? What impact will racial tensions have on American politics just two years from the next presidential election?
This week Christine Ockrent hosts :
Laurence Nardon, researcher and head of the United States Program at IFRI. She edited the case study “DIPLOMATIE : LES CHOIX D'OBAMA II” in Politique étrangère, vol.78, (été 2013). Take note of the United States Program at IFRI's upcoming annual conference, on December 5, 2014 on "Obama's International legacy : Now or Never ?"
Maboula Soumahoro (by telephone), Head of conferences on the anglophone world at l'université François-Rabelais in Tours, co-founder and co-organizer of the Black History Month/Africana festival, a celebration of Black history and cultures from around the world.
Anne-Lorraine Bujon, Head of the Globalization Regulation Program at l’Institut des Hautes Etudes sur la Justice, and lecturer in the Masters in International Relations program at INALCO, member of the editorial board for Politique américaine.
Simon Serfaty (by telephone), Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
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